2021年经济学人 为什么管理者们总爱使用行业黑话(1)

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Jargon¹ abhors² a vacuum.

行话厌恶空白。

The reasons behind management gobbledygook.

难懂的管理术语背后的原因。

No child aspires³ to a life talking the kind of nonsense that many executives speak.

没有哪个孩子希望过着像许多高管那样胡说八道的生活。

But it seems that, as soon as managers start to climb the corporate⁴ ladder, they begin to lose the ability to talk or write clearly.

但似乎一旦经理们开始沿着公司的阶梯向上爬，他们就开始失去清晰地说话或写作的能力。

They instead become entangled⁵ in a forest of gobbledygook.

相反，他们陷入了官样文章的森林中。

The first explanation for this phenomenon is that “jargon abhors a vacuum”.

对这一现象的第一个解释是“行话厌恶空白”。

All too often, executives know they have nothing significant to say in a speech or a memo⁶.

很多时候，高管们都知道，他们在演讲或简报中没有什么重要的东西可说。

They could confine their remarks to something like “profits are up (or down)”, which would be relevant information.

他们可以将自己的言论限制在“利润上升(或下降)”这样的话上，这是些相关的信息。

But executives would rather make some grand statement about team spirit or the corporate ethos.

但高管们更愿意就团队精神或企业精神发表一些宏大的声明。

They aim to make the business sound more inspirational than “selling more stuff at less cost”.

他们的目标是让这项业务听起来比“以更低的成本销售更多的东西”更有启发性。

So they use long words, obscure jargon, and buzzwords like “holistic” to fill the space.

所以他们用长词、晦涩难懂的行话和像“整体”这样的流行语来填补空白。

Another reason why managers indulge in waffle relates to the nature of the modern economy.

经理们沉迷于胡扯的另一个原因与现代经济的本质有关。

In the past, work was largely about producing, or selling, physical things such as bricks or electrical gadgets⁷.

在过去，工作主要是生产或销售实物，比如砖头或电器配件。

A service-based economy involves tasks that are difficult to define.

服务型经济涉及的任务很难定义。

When it is hard to describe what you do, it is natural to resort to imprecise terms.

当很难描述你所做的事情时，很自然地就会使用不精确的术语。

Such terms can have a purpose but still be irritating.

这些术语可能有其目的，但仍然令人恼火。

Take “onboarding”. A single word to describe the process of a company assimilating a new employee could be useful.

以“onboarding”为例。用一个词来描述公司吸纳新员工的过程可能是有用的。

But “to board” would do the trick (at least in American English, which is more comfortable than British English with “a plane boarding passengers” and not just “passengers boarding a plane”).

但是用“to board”就可以了（至少在美式英语中是这样的，美式英语中的“a plane boarding passengers”比英式英语中的“passengers boarding a plane”要舒服得多）。

The only purpose of adding “on” seems to be to allow the creation of an equally ugly word, “offboarding”, the process of leaving a firm.

添加“on”的唯一目的似乎是创造另一个同样令人厌恶的词“offboarding”，也就是离开公司的过程。

Overblown language is also used when the actual business is prosaic⁸.

当实际业务平淡无奇时，人们也会使用夸张的语言。

Private Eye, a British satirical magazine that often mocks corporate flimflam, used to have a regular column pointing out the absurd tendency of companies to tag the word “solutions” onto a product; carpets became “floor-covering solutions”.

英国讽刺杂志《私家侦探》经常嘲讽企业的鬼话，它曾开设固定专栏，指出企业在产品上贴上“解决方案”一词的荒谬趋势；地毯变成“覆盖地板的解决方案”。

(Bartleby has long wanted to start a business devoted⁹ to dissolving items in water so it could be called “Solution Solutions”.)

（巴托比一直想创办一家致力于将物品溶解在水中的公司，这样它就可以被称为“溶液解决方案”。）

Nowadays, the target for mockery is the use of the term DNA¹⁰, as in “perfect customer service is in our DNA”.

如今，人们的嘲笑对象是DNA这个词的使用，比如“完美的客户服务存在于我们的DNA中”。

1 jargon   

n.术语，行话

参考例句：

• They will not hear critics with their horrible jargon.他们不愿意听到评论家们那些可怕的行话。
• It is important not to be overawed by the mathematical jargon.要紧的是不要被数学的术语所吓倒.

2 abhors   

v.憎恶( abhor的第三人称单数 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰

参考例句：

• For the same reason, our party abhors the deification of an individual. 因为这样，我们党也厌弃对于个人的神化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She abhors cruelty to animals. 她憎恶虐待动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 aspires   

v.渴望，追求( aspire的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The fame to which he aspires was beyond his reach. 他追求的名誉乃是他所不能及的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• An old steed in the stable still aspires to gallop a thousand li. 老骥伏枥，志在千里。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

5 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

7 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

8 prosaic   

adj.单调的，无趣的

参考例句：

• The truth is more prosaic.真相更加乏味。
• It was a prosaic description of the scene.这是对场景没有想象力的一个描述。

9 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

10 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。